Cuba & Arizona in the News

When we explained the difficulties we were having with the State Department, he said he would try to help us. He explained that he detested the Castro brothers and the Cuban government. But he also felt that differences in political philosophies should not be an impediment to a project of such importance.

“Yes, I think they are closer,” Flake said after he returned to Washington this week from a trip to Havana with Google's former Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, as well as Brett Perlmutter and Susanna Kohly, Google's executives in charge of relations with Cuba.

Nearly a dozen Arizona college students really got away from the snow for spring break - they went to Cuba. Assistant professor Melissa Santana of Northern Arizona University's school of interior design beat President Barack Obama's much-ballyhooed trip to the punch by a day, the Arizona Daily Sun reported.

This exponential expansion of Cuba’s entrepreneurial class would not have happened were it not for U.S. policy changes in 2009 that have led to an explosion of travel and remittances among Cuban Americans. Some suggest that remittances to the island are responsible for 70 to 80 percent of the capital used in small businesses in Cuba.

Last week, Flake spoke on the senate floor, supporting the offing movement to restore diplomatic relations between countries. “I have always believed that denying Americans the ability to travel to and trade with Cuba has done more to extend dictatorial rule on that island than any other policy we could have adapted,” says Flake.

The American and Arizona leaders are planning to meet with Cuban officials, including Raul Castro. Flake said critics who claim America is embracing a Communist country by establishing relations with Cuba are wrong.

“Opportunities for improved trade is good news for Arizona agriculture as we export $1.26 billion in agriculture product around the globe. Cuba will certainly increase that number,” said Arizona Farm Bureau President Kevin Rogers. “We appreciate the hard work and leadership Senator Jeff Flake has shown on this issue.”

U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake traveled to Cuba early Wednesday and returned with released American contractor Alan Gross in advance of President Barack Obama's historic announcement that the United States would move to normalize relations with the Communist country.